McCarthy has a proven track record of taking teams out of the Championship having won promotion to the Premier League with both Wolves and Sunderland.

Roy Keane was an early mover, BetVictor slashing their price from 50s to 12s, but they then eased him to 20s alongside bet365.

There were also signs of money for Alex McLeish. Coral went as short as 5/1 but Sky Bet and BetVictor were prepared to quote 9/1 once the market settled down.

The other big gamble, though, was on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, despite having been linked with the vacancy down the road at Blackburn.

He was cut from 20/1 to 2/1 by Paddy Power and 6/4 from 12s by William Hill, leaving Coral's 9/2 as the best available price as of 1915 BST.

BetVictor spokesperson Charlie McCann said: "We have been betting on the next manager at the club for over a week now and former Wolves and Republic of Ireland manager McCarthy has been the mover in recent days although once again United's former legend Ole Gunner Solskjaer has been well backed."

Other interesting names added to the early betting included former Blackburn boss Steve Kean, Kenny Dalglish and ex-Bolton defender Fernando Hierro, who were all available at 80/1 with BetVictor.